Sox can’t recover

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Three batters into the first inning last night, Red Sox rookie third baseman Will Middlebrooks booted a grounder.

The fan reaction at Fenway Park: “Booooooo!”

Or maybe it was “Yooooooouk!”

Either way, it was an unfavorable beginning to the post-Kevin Youkilis era.

And it didn’t get much better.

One night after trading their veteran third baseman to the Chicago White Sox, the Red Sox lost a 9-6 slugfest to the Toronto Blue Jays in a game that was delayed for 116 minutes in the seventh inning by a vicious thunderstorm.

But before the menacing thunder and lightning, the Blue Jays zapped typically steady left-hander Felix Doubront, who endured his roughest start of the season.

Doubront allowed more runs in the first inning than he did in all but one of his previous 14 starts, as the Blue Jays jumped ahead 4-0. And after the Red Sox rallied for a 5-5 tie, he gave up J.P. Arencibia’s two-out, two-run homer off a billboard atop the Green Monster in the sixth inning to restore Toronto’s lead.

“I don’t know. It was one of those days,” Doubront said in a hushed tone. “It’s going to happen.”

But considering Doubront missed large portions of last season due to injuries and already has thrown 851â„3 innings this year, it’s worth wondering whether he’s beginning to get fatigued. After all, he threw only 872â„3 innings last season between the majors and minors.

Two weeks ago, Doubront insisted his arm felt so strong that he believed he could approach 200 innings this season. But he gave up season highs with seven runs and 11 hits against the Blue Jays, and in his last two starts, he has allowed 11 runs on 20 hits in 13 innings.

Doubront was gone from the game by the seventh inning, at which point Jose Bautista didn’t exactly make it rain. But the prolific slugger hit a tape-measure, two-run shot against reliever Matt Albers that preceded the downpour and gave the Blue Jays a four-run lead too large to be overcome even by a pair of homers by David Ortiz, who increased his career total to 398, tying Dale Murphy for 51st on the all-time list.

“I’m not going to analyze it. I’m going to enjoy it,” Valentine said of Ortiz’ continuing power surge even at age 36. “Because it’s what we’ve needed, obviously.”

But while Ortiz fueled the offense, Doubront made a comeback bid increasingly difficult.

After getting back-to-back solid performances from spot starters Franklin Morales and Aaron Cook, the Red Sox were hoping Doubront would provide some certainty. After all, he had allowed three runs or fewer over six innings or more in eight of his first 14 outings, making him the team’s most consistent starter.

But things didn’t go well from the outset. The first four Blue Jays reached base, beginning with Brett Lawrie’s single. Colby Rasmus belted a two-run homer to right field, and after Bautista reached on Middlebrooks’ error, Edwin Encarnacion cracked an RBI double and scored two batters later on a fielder’s choice.

“They’re a fastball-hitting team, so they were jumping on fastballs and we didn’t really have our location down,” catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said. “Too many pitches over the plate. Early on we were throwing a lot of fastballs. That’s what they want. Tried to mix it up with some curveballs, changeups, tried to get them a little off balance.”

Nothing worked.

And so, even with his innings approaching last year’s level, Doubront already is doing the only thing he can. He’s putting last night’s game behind him.